The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights brought together 22 legislators, legal experts and civil society actors last week to work on a draft national reconciliation legislation.
The workshop lasted two days in Tunisia, during which the participants combined two draft laws that were drafted separately, one by a legal committee formed by the Presidential Council as part of its mandate, and the other prepared by the House of Representatives, UNSMIL said on Monday.
The group included representatives of the House of Representatives and the Presidential Council, in addition to the High Council of State and the Constitution Drafting Assembly. They all reviewed the articles of the draft unified law in detail, discussed the controversial points and proposed solutions to them, while ensuring that the draft reflects the best international practices in the field of transitional justice and national reconciliation.
UNSMIL's statement indicated that this is the first time that representatives of the Legal Committee of the Presidential Council and members of the House of Representatives as well as the High Council of State have met to discuss the details of the reconciliation and transitional justice legislation.
The Head of the Human Rights and Rule of Law Department at UNSMIL, Suki Nagra, called for the adoption of a strong transitional justice law to achieve lasting stability, warning of the lack of recognition of the rights of victims and the continued failure to address past injustices.
